Hey so my second update due to the fact that I likely won't be able to update tomorrow (And even if I do it'll be a lot later than usual so I figure it's just better to do it now and get it done. As usual thank you for everyone's support I love you guys so much and it truly does mean so much to me. As usual I hope you guys enjoy!
The five days rushed by all too fast for Naruto, Sakura and Gaara.
They were rarely seen apart after that first evening, even as more arrivals showed up at the Tower the three of them stuck together, spending most of their days training with Kakashi supervising-he only had to step inn once when Sakura had unexpectedly caught Gaara-the first time anyone had landed a blow, and the boy had panicked, lashing out with his sand and sending her flying towards the wall.
That had been in the morning on the third day when Sakura had convinced Gaara to actually fight her and she'd gotten under his guard and his sand had reacted a split second too slowly.
Kakashi had caught Sakura before she'd hit the wall and Naruto had been on Jinchuriki duty-thankfully she was all healed up so it was easy enough for her to pin him down and force him to calm down.
The red haired boy had apologized three times for that-after all Naruto and Sakura were his first friends ever, the first people to treat him like more than a monster just because they wanted to-and Naruto had silently vowed to murder Gaara's father if she was ever in the same room as him-who the hell sent assassins after their son? Even if it was Gaara's fault, which it wasn't, no parent in their right mind should even be willing to consider killing their own child like that. It was disgusting-and Naruto had made her opinion very clear when Gaara had casually explained that he was used to attempts on his life.
In any case Sakura had shrugged it off and accepted the apology without any hesitation, much to the boys relief.
On the evening of the third day they had an audience in the form of Temari and Kankuro, who showed up to watch Naruto and Sakura take on Gaara to try and get the scroll-Naruto had been begrudgingly allowed to join in by Kakashi as long as she took it easy and didn't push herself too much.
They only watched from the sidelines that day, but the next day the siblings hesitantly asked to join in, and they turned it into a game of capture the scroll, with Sakura and Naruto vs the Sand Siblings-and by the end of the day Temari and Kankuro were no longer flinching whenever Gaara so much as looked in their direction-though they were by no means relaxed around him.
Gaara was gradually changing-he was still quiet, and he rarely showed any emotions when speaking, but Naruto and Sakura could coax very faint smiles from him on the odd occasion.
He was also still extremely socially awkward, but again he was improving, taking his cues from the two girls who had, without any real discussion, made themselves his guides to humanity.
They avoided most of the other Chunin hopefuls-Gaara blocked the doors to the dojo whenever they were training, because Gaara generally found the crowds somewhat overwhelming.
Naruto did keep an eye out for Sasuke-but every time she caught a glimpse of him, as soon as he saw her he'd turn away and stalk off with a furious look on his face and anger so thick that she could feel it rolling off him. She hated it, she really did, but there was nothing she could do. She'd said she'd give him space so that was what he was doing.
Still her heart ached, she didn't want the somewhat strange little family they'd been building to break apart after all, but she felt powerless to stop it.
And then the day came, the final day, and when the deadline arrived all of the Chunin hopefuls were gathered together in the center of an arena on the ground floor of the tower.
The blonde was stood with Sakura and the Sand Siblings, Sasuke stood slightly to the side away from the and resolutely refusing to so much as glance in the blondes direction. It was beyond infuriating, a part of her wanted to lunge at him and strangle him as revenge for his blatant ignorance-but Sakura clearly knew her well enough and a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her.
She looked around at the other Genin clustered around, a thoughtful look on her face as she considered them all.
All three rookie teams had gotten through, as had the team with the Mini-Gai, that was good for Konoha.
Kabuto's team seemed to have also gotten through-that one was annoying-then again maybe she'd get the chance to wipe his face into the dirt-based on the arena she figured it was safe to assume that the next round would be individual fights-something to look forward to to be sure.
Of course Gaara's team had also gotten through, and so had Haku's team, the gentle boy had given Naruto and Sakura a warm smile and a wave when he'd spotted them both stood with the Suna team, and the Oto team had gotten through as well.
It would be interesting there were twenty four Chunin hopefuls left. That was a lot all things considered-if they were doing one on one fights.
The blonde was drawn from her thoughts by Anko stepping forward and speaking "Alright. Congratulations on passing the second part of the test." there was a long pause for everyone to take this fact in before she spoke again. "Alright now you maggots, Hokage-sama is going to explain the third exam! Hokage-sama, they're all yours."
The old man walked forward so that he was stood in front of the young Shinobi. "First, before I tell you what the third exam entails I want to explain something about the test itself. Listen closely now, it's something you need to understand. I am going to tell you the true purpose of these exams. Why do you suppose our country holds these exams in conjunction with our allies?"
Naruto and Sakura exchanged matching grins at that-and Naruto's eyes automatically flicked towards Sasuke-usually he'd have rolled his eyes and smirked at their conspiratorial behaviour-he knew as well as they did how Rin had spent over an hour explaining the purpose behind the exams just so they knew how seriously they needed to take them.
But Sasuke was still looking away from her and Naruto felt her shoulders slump slightly and she bit her lip hard, looking away as the Hokage continued.
"To raise the ability levels of our Shinobi and to strengthen the ties between the nations to be sure. But it's important that you understand it's true meaning. The exams are, so to speak, a representation of the battle between allied nations. Now if you look at our history all of the countries that we are now allied with were once neighboring countries that we were in constant war with. To prevent us destroying each others military strength needlessly these nations picked champions to do battle on behalf of their countries in a mutually decided location. That is how the Chunin selection exams originally began. "These exams also allow for a place where Shinobi can carry the pride of their nation on their back against other Shinobi for their very lives. Many leaders and people of prominence from many countries are invited to attend this exam as guests, and also to pick potential Shinobi to work for them. This exam will determine the course of your work from here on out. And more importantly these rulers will take note of the strengths of each Shinobi and the country they are representing. If there is a gap in skill and strength then strong nations will get more missions and job requests, while weaker nations will get fewer missions. Therefore the stronger our nation is the better our position for negotiating with other nations, so it is important to show how much military strength our nation has."
Kiba was the one who spoke up at that, his eyes narrowed "So we have to risk our lives just for that?" which made Naruto roll her eyes.
"The countries strength is the villages strength, the villages strength is the Shinobi's strength. And the true strength of the Shinobi is only achieved when it's pushed to it's limits, such as during a life and death battle. This exam is a chance for each nation to display the strength of it's Shinobi, and as such the strength of the nation itself. It's because this is an exam where your life is on the line that it has meaning. And it is for this very reason and for the strength of the nation that your forerunners fought in this exam. It is truly a dream worth striving for. The third exam is a fight for your life, with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake."
There was a long silence as the Genin absorbed the Hokages words-and his eyes focused on Naruto, a faint twinkle in his eyes as she smirked back and piped up, "Oh, so you mean the second exam didn't involve fighting for our lives?" that earned her a few annoyed looks from other Genin, and some curious ones from the adults-clearly rumours had already started to spread-while it wasn't exactly public knowledge that she'd fought Orochimaru one on one it was already known among those running the exams that he'd been in the Forest of Death and had attacked a Genin team, and given when they'd received the news and when the first team had passed it was easy to figure out that team Seven had been involved in what happened.
"Point taken Naruto-san." the old man nodded, "But the third exam will be much more public than whatever fights you had during the second exam, a chance to show off and make your village proud. Now, listen closely, I will tell you exactly what you'll all be doing on the third exam."
At that a man leapt down from above, his back to the Genin "Hokage-sama. Before you do please allow me to speak."
"So be it."
"It's nice to meet you all. My name is Gekko Hayate, the proctor of your next test" the man turned to face them, "There is something I would all of you to do before the third exam." his words were constantly interrupted by rather unhealthy sounding coughs that made Naruto frown.
She wondered why a medic nin hadn't seen to him-or maybe there was just nothing they could do-perhaps she should mention it to her mom. She'd shown rather brutally that she was a lot more capable than most of the medics in Konoha currently.
She blinked when Sakura elbowed her- the proctor had begun to speak once more. "We have to have a preliminary exam before we can move onto the real one."
That caused whispers to break out amongst the Genin, and Temari spoke up, "Why do we have to have a preliminary we all passed the first stage of the exams." her voice was frustrated.
"You see, the first and second exams may have been too easy. The point is, we never expected so many of you to get this far. According to the rules of the Chunin exams a preliminary can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining."
"But that's not fair." Sakura frowned from her spot beside Naruto, "We all worked hard to get here."
"It's just that at this stage we have to speed things up a bit. As the Hokage said there will be many important people coming, we can't afford to waste time, we want only the best. If any of you feel you're not in top physical condition this is your chance to bow out." he was still coughing, "The preliminaries will be starting immediately."
"What?" Ino demanded, looking furious. "Immediately? But we've only just finished the last test." there were more grumbles at that, and Naruto resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"I get the feeling that they don't care about that." she spoke up, "If anything it helps them even more, weeding out those who took longer." it was logical after all-Naruto was just glad that she was all healed up already, and that Sakura had been training so hard-Naruto was confident that the pink haired girl could take on most of the potential matches.
"She's right. If there's anyone who doesn't feel up to it raise your hand." his eyes flicked around the room. "The preliminary will be a set of one on one sudden death fights." when no one stepped forward Hayate nodded."Now then, does anybody else want to quit?"
Naruto glanced around, frowning to herself when Kabuto stepped forward. Her eyes narrowed and she tensed slightly as he raised a hand.
"I don't think I'm ready for this."
"So be it, Kabuto, from Konoha. You're out." and was Naruto the only one who found that insanely suspicious. The guy had taken the exams seven times, never passing-surely the final phase was similar every time-or at least that was what logic would dictate, so he knew what he was up against when entering the exams.
This bastard was purposely dropping out, he was definitely up to something.
Her eyes flicked to the Hokage, who gave her a very subtle nod when he caught the way she was watching Kabuto.
She only looked away from him when he left and she shook her head slightly, pushing away those thoughts, the Hokage knew.
"Right." Hayate nodded, "That means that there are twenty three of you which makes eleven matches with one of you getting a free pass at random, the twelve of you who remain will move on to the Third part of the exam. The rules are as followed. You fight until one of you dies or concedes defeat or in unable to continue. Those who are losing are encouraged to concede defeat before it goes to far. And furthermore, as proctor I am given a certain amount of leeway in judging the matches. I may, if necessary, intervene, to save as many lives as possible. Now it is time to reveal what fate has chosen for you." A panel on the wall behind the man opened. "The opponent you are to face has been chosen completely at random. The names will appear on display behind me. I guess there's nothing more to say other than good luck." he turned his head as the screen lit up and two names flashed on the screen, and Naruto felt herself smirking as the screen flicked through names before landing on two names, and Naruto grinned slightly as she saw them, her eyes flicking to Sakura, who grinned widely, and Naruto raised an eyebrow.
The opponents name was Kin.
She blinked and her eyes found the girl from sound, who was glaring in Sakura's direction.
"Oh you're gonna kick ass Sakura-chan." Naruto squeezed her friends shoulder and Sakura grinned.
"Thank you Naruto-chan."
"Alright. Will the two who's names have been chosen step forward?"
They both did, and Hayate nodded, "Everyone else leave the arena and go up to the next level. Let's get the preliminaries started."
